During the past week I’ve been trying to figure out the appetite for consumers to buy content on media tablets such as the iPad and Kindle. Its back of the envelope analysis but bear with me.

While consumers aren’t willing to pay to access content behind a paywall via a PC they appear willing to cough up for iPad subscriptions of the same content.

The broadsheet newsprint publishers in the UK have all released iPad apps with second generation versions in the works. Even Murdoch is reported to be excited by the potential growth of the category and has funded a new iPad ‘newspaper’ called the Daily out of New York.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the Brit that invented the web, recently criticised Apple for making iTunes a closed market. It’s a return to walled-garden created by ISPs in the 1990s, he said.

In its Anytime, Anywhere report on mobile media published today, KPMG reported today that two per cent of the UK population (over 16 years of age) own a media tablet such as an iPad or Kindle. This equates to approximately one million individuals according population figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Predictions of the growth of the tablet market vary from analyst-to-analyst. Gartner reckons 2011 will see 180 per cent growth.

KPMG also said that one-in-ten smart phone users spent more than £10 on apps during the month that they were questioned. There is a strong argument that says users are far more likely to buy apps on a tablet versus a smart phone as without apps a tablet is an expensive photo frame. But if this number is transposed directly from smart phones to tablets then it is currently worth £12 million per year in the UK.

We’re almost certainly at the start of the market that is set to grow in three directions:

• sales of media tablets – 180 per cent next year according to Gartner
• app and content revenue per user per month – second generation app content will be more appealing and publishers will be bolder with their pricing
• number of users buying apps – figures for smart phone are conservative

Could media tablets provide a much needed revenue source, not this year, or even next year, but within five years, for publishers seeking to shore-up falling news print revenues? Maybe, just maybe.